Hidden Treasures - Studio Showcase - The Record Plant NYC

[Scott]

Timed to introduce a new featurette.


I've often noticed that there are certain hit factories out there, these are the studios that produce the music we love. Many prominent locations exist in Classic Rock history and so it is with this backdrop that we will begin looking at some of them, one at a time. But for the next two weeks, were going to focus on one and that's the famous Record Plant and its two more successful locations. Our first stop is in New York City....


The Record Plant was a series of three famous recording studios which were founded by Gary Kellgren and Chris Stone, beginning in New York City in 1968. The Record Plant in New York was the first studio to give the recording artist a comfortable, casual environment rather than the clinical setting that was the norm through the 1960s. Stone later said of Kellgren, "He single-handedly was responsible for changing studios from what they were—fluorescent lights, white walls and hardwood floors—to the living rooms that they are today." Some of the early accomplishments of this studio are rather significant...

• As the studio was nearing completion, record producer Tom Wilson persuaded Hendrix producer Chas Chandler to book the Record Plant from April 18 to early July 1968, for the recording of the album Electric Ladyland.
• The next big mixing assignment that the studio accepted was to mix the tracks recorded at the Woodstock Festival.
• In 1970, Studio A became the first recording studio designed for mixing quadraphonic sound.
• On August 1, 1971, the studio made its first remote recordings at The Concert for Bangladesh, held at Madison Square Garden.
• John Lennon was recording "Walking on Thin Ice" at the Record Plant on December 8, 1980, the day he was shot and killed.

Lets take a walk through some of the other great releases that came from this studio...


PLAYLIST --> http://www.podsnack.com/CA69EFD9E8C/a1kag9np

	Aerosmith Get Your Wings 1974 1 - Seasons of Wither Aerosmith signed with Columbia in mid-1972 for a reported $125,000 and issued their debut album, Aerosmith. After constant touring, the band released their second album Get Your Wings in 1974, the first of a string of multi-platinum albums produced by Jack Douglas. Steven Tyler wrote this song using an old acoustic guitar Joey Kramer found in the garbage on Beacon Street. In a change of pace from the rest of the album, this song is a slow, mournful ballad inspired by the Massachusetts landscape in the winter.
	Cheap Trick Cheap Trick 1977 2 - The Ballad of TV Violence (I'm Not The Only Boy) Most of the songs have a more raw sound akin to hard rock bands of the period compared to the group's later more polished power pop style, and the song lyrics deal with more extreme subject matter than later albums. For instance, "The Ballad of T.V. Violence" is about serial killer Richard Speck, "Daddy Should Have Stayed in High School" is about a pedophile, and "Oh Candy" is about a photographer friend of the band, Marshall Mintz (a.k.a. "m&m") who committed suicide. This album, along with the following three albums, are considered by fans and critics to be Cheap Trick's best works. This one, however, is more known for capturing both their dark side and the fierceness of their early live performances more than any other studio release in their catalog. The album was produced by Jack Douglas, who had achieved a similar sonic density with the blues-rock/hard rock band Aerosmith, and the album sounds quite different than subsequent Cheap Trick records. Jack Douglas later worked with the band on the Found All the Parts EP, on the album Standing On The Edge.
	Jackson Browne Running On Empty 1977 3 - You Love The Thunder Rolling Stone rated the album 5 of 5 stars writing "The album exudes intimacy, revealing the empathetic, flexible bond between Browne and his audience." Music critic Robert Christgau gave the album a B+ grade: "Jackson sounds relaxed verbally, vocally, even instrumentally... I consider this his most attractive album. But his devotees may consider the self-effacement a deprivation." Blender gave the 2005 reissue a 4 of 5 star rating, stating it "cuts deeper than most road sagas partly because Browne had the brilliant notion of recording on the fly... It also works because he tapped the culture’s circa-1977 sense that it was running on empty, feeling like a trashed Holiday Inn room—Empty is about something larger than the misery of room service." Bill Shapiro called the album "Audio verité—one of the most conceptually fascinating recordings in the history of rock & roll."
	John Lennon and Yoko Ono Double Fantasy 1980 4 - Watching The Wheels In the summer of 1980, Lennon made a sailing trip through treacherous waters from Newport, Rhode Island, to Bermuda. During the journey, Lennon's yacht encountered a prolonged severe storm, most of the crew eventually succumbed to profound fatigue and seasickness. Lennon (free of seasickness) was eventually forced to take the yacht's wheel alone for many hours. Lennon found this terrifying but invigorating, it had the effect of both renewing his confidence and making him contemplate the fragility of life. As a result he began to write new songs and reworked earlier demos. He commented later, 'I was so centered after the experience at sea that I was tuned in to the cosmos – and all these songs came!' Ono approached producer Jack Douglas, with whom the couple had previously worked, and gave him Lennon's demos to listen to. "My immediate impressions were that I was going to have a hard time making it better than the demos because there was such intimacy in the demos," Initial critical reaction to the album was largely negative. However, three weeks after the album's release, Lennon was murdered and many of the poor reviews were withheld from publication, including those by Stephen Holden of The New York Times, Tom Carson of Rolling Stone, and Geoffrey Stokes of The Village Voice. In 1982, Douglas, Lennon and Ono won the 1981 Album of the Year for Double Fantasy at the 24th Annual Grammy Awards. In 1989 the album was ranked number 29 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 100 greatest albums of the 1980s.

[Niels (Mod)]

The Record Plant was mentioned in the Moon-book, I'm reading, as the perfect studio for Keith Moon. It was there, he recorded his solo-album in 1974, and every day was an ongoing party with booze, drugs and prostitutes/groupies. The first producer on his album was Mal Evans (Beatles road-manager), but he was too much out of his mind on coke, heroin and alcohol (like Moon) and was fired. A few months later he was shot by the police.

Lennon complained about Moon and Harry Nielsson pissing in the studio at some point. 

AEROSMITH - It's not that long ago since I last heard this album (because I was reading Joe Perry's book). It's okay, but not great, kind of like most of Aerosmiths outout. Looking at your list, Jack douglas was producing quite a few albums on the Record Plant.

CHEAP TRICK - CLASSIC!!!! This is not only CT's very best album, it's (still) on my top 10 over favorite albums of all time. Buying this album, probably in 1980, and playing it loud made my family complain to me, about the "Jimi Hendrix-noise". My highlight of the day, so far, listening to this song.

JACKSON BROWN - This is not at all familiar to me at all. It's radio-music, and pretty boring. It's this kind of music, that I think you guys post too much around here, and the reason for me to start up VOTW again.

JOHN LENNON - It still makes me sad, listening to this album, because it will forever remind me of the morning before going to school, finding out Lennon was shot. Actually I can't say, remember listening to the WHOLE album, because as far as I remember, it's a cross between John-songs and Yoko-songs, and I HATE everything Yoko. You can't take the music-business serious at all: First withhold bad reviews, and then because of the tragedy call the album the 29th best album ever made.

[Jon]

Could swear I read bad reviews of that Lennon album when it came out. I really didn't care since I wasn't a fan of his solo stuff. Actually, I'm still not a fan of his solo stuff with the exception of a song or two. And no, one of those songs is not the one about light knees.

Jackson Browne used to bore me, now not so much. Maybe that's why I bought a bunch of his albums last year. Or maybe I was just bored and wanted to buy stuff. 

Cheap Trick is ok, I guess.

I guess you couldn't play anything off of SOTE for Aerosmith. 

[Scott]

You lost me at SOTE

[Jon]

Yeah. Well, I guess I wasn't paying attention and didn't really care what I typed. Or I switched Aerosmith and Cheap Trick.

[Scott]

ah... I get it now.  I feel better.  And you're correct I couldn't play anything off of STOE because I don't own SOTE.

[RJhog (Admin)]

That Aerosmith tune is fantastic.  Maybe their second best ballad, behind Dream On of course.  

As far as Cheap Trick goes, I'll admit I'm a relatively new fan of the band.  Not that I didn't like them way back when.  I always thought At Budokan was cool and I really liked the songs Dream Police and Gonna Raise Hell.  But I didn't own any albums (other than At Budokan) so all I knew was what was on the radio.  Then I reconnected a bit when Standing On The Edge came out.  Loved that album top to bottom.  But again, didn't delve any deeper at the time.  Now that I have, I really love the band.  This song is kind of strange, but it's terrific none the less.  Really, the first four albums in their studio catalog are practically flawless.  Hope they get around to making some new music soon.

The Jackson Browne song was great.  I loved music back then.  It got played on the radio (not sure about this song, but this type of song) and still had great guitar solos.  I have a hard time figuring out why someone that likes JB would not like the band Dawes.  The singer really sound like JB and writes lyrics that sound just like something JB would have written.  But, no love for that band here, other than myself.

Lennon's solo work is just something that I've never gotten into.  Obviously, I've heard this one before.  It is a terrific song.  I have heard some others in the last couple of years that I like, like Jealous Guy (or something like that) and Beautiful Boy.  It's a cryin' shame what happened to him.  Maybe I'll get around to picking up some of his stuff.  I noticed at the used cd store last week that they have his box set (7 albums or something like that) for about 60 bucks. Didn't realize it when I was there but it's considerably less than what Amazon has it for.  You never know.